Why I decided to put this together I decided to put this together because I'm constantly being asked about vaccines. Parents are understandably worried, confused and overwhelmed by all the information floating around. Will vaccines cause my child to be Autistic? The truth is that kids are diagnosed with Autism, regardless of whether or not they've been vaccinated. So it's not that simple. Personally, I'm a believer in vaccines and I don't think there is any denying that they save countless lives. However, not everyone feels the same way. My goal with this article is to help parents to rely less on what celebrities like Jenny McCarthy have to say and more on their own personal research. I think that if we can take the power away from the people…

One of the things that I'm working really hard to do, is teach my kids the things that they won't learn in school.  Things like every day life skills that help to foster independence. As an example, I take the boys grocery shopping, so they can learn healthy food choices and even how you check out. Today I showed Gavin how to clean out the litter box. I'm going to double check with his immunologist to make sure that's safe but it's a new skill he's learned. While not a glamorous one, if he wants a cat later in life, now he knows how to cleanup after it.  Gavin also helps with trash day and small repair jobs around the house.  He loves cleaning and actually looks forward to trash…

I wanted to give you all a peak behind the curtain, so to speak.  Every Monday night, we have to refill Gavin's pill dispenser for the week.  We go one week at a time because the pill dispenser is broken and we haven't been able to replace it yet. This may look like two weeks but it's actually divided up by AM and PM. The top row is given in the morning and the bottom row is given in the evening, at bedtime. For the most part, he's taking the same thing in the morning and at night.  Doling these pills out one week at a time has actually worked out pretty well for us.  Thankfully, Gavin is amazing at taking his meds. He never complains and never gives us…

I'm trying to handle Gavin's hallucinations in a calm manner. We listen to all his stories allow him to talk to us about his adventures. Today was one of those days that he was deeply entrenched in hallucinated world's. In the picture below, you can see how he documented his poker game with his less than visible friends. Gavin was the winner of the poker game, Sonic came in second and Manic was the third place winner. I always find it interesting how these things work out because he never likes to lose at anything in real life. He doesn't lose to his less than visible friends either.  Some how, he always seems to win, although he does admit to cheating. As crappy as this situations is, it's a real…

It's really weird.  About 2 years ago, I developed seasonal allergies for the first time in life. I went the first 33 years of my life without them.  Over the weekend I ran out of my allergy meds and couldn't get them refilled until today.  I was fine all weekend. Even after cutting the grass. That said, I wake up this morning and can't stop sneezing.  My right eye won't stop watering either.  It's pretty miserable..  I picked up my prescription but I probably won't feel better until tomorrow morning.  There's no doubt it could be worse and I'm grateful  that Zyrtec controls them so well.  I'm so looking forward for tomorrow.  Perhaps, if Lizze is feeling up to it, I'll take some Benadryl to get me through the day. …

Gavin informed me this morning that he would be gone for most of the day. Apparently, there's a major battle going on in Sonic land and he will be fighting at Sonic's side all day. I didn't get  many specifics because he was in a hurry to go help his visibly challenged friends. All I could think to tell him is that I wanted him to be  careful and I didn't want him to get hurt. Before I could even finish what I was saying, he was off to war. To Gavin, this is very real and to me, this is very concerning.  In my writing, I have stopped using the word imaginary to describe these things because I think it conveys the wrong message.  This isn't his imagination and…

I want to do a little exercise with all of you today.  As a parent to a special needs child, it's really, really easy to feel like a bad parent at times. Whether it's the world making assumptions or you being too hard on yourself, it's easy to feel bad. Trust me, I understand completely what that's like.  This exercise is really simple and I'll go first. Here's what you do. Simply fill in the blanks.  Follow my example below and add your to the comments below. I'm a good parent because I love my kids and while I make mistakes, I learn from them and never give up. This site is managed almost exclusively via WordPress for Android. Please forgive any typos as autocorrect HATES me. ;-) Follow @Lost_and_Tired Visit…

Autism affects more than 1 million children and adults in the United States, and parents may be confused by the behavior of autistic children. This book provides help-and hope-by explaining the differences between various types of autism and delivering…